The markets operated by the Warsaw Stock Exchange had 94 new listings in 2008, including 33 on the WSE Main List and 61 on the alternative market NewConnect. The value of this year’s offers was in excess of PLN 9.5 billion.
Despite the financial market crisis, the number of IPOs on the WSE was down by only 11 compared to 2007 when the WSE Main List and NewConnect scored 105 new listings.
WSE: The European Leader
According to the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), the WSE ranked first in Europe by the number of IPOs in the year by the end of November 2008. The markets operated by the WSE account for one third of all European IPOs in January-November 2008. The WSE was ahead of all exchanges in the region as well as other markets including London, Euronext and OMX.
Table 1. Number of IPOs on European Exchanges(January-November 2008; totals for all markets operated by each exchange)
|
Exchange (main list + alternative market) |
Quarter
2008 |
2008 |
|||
|
|
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Q4* |
Total |
|
Warsaw Stock Exchange |
19 |
38 |
13 |
12 |
82 |
|
London Stock Exchange |
16 |
41 |
12 |
3 |
72 |
|
Euronext |
5 |
7 |
8 |
1 |
21 |
|
OMX Nordic Exchange |
5 |
8 |
2 |
3 |
18 |
|
Luxembourg Stock Exchange |
4 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
15 |
|
Oslo Børs |
3 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
|
Bulgarian Stock Exchange |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
|
Borsa Italiana |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
6 |
|
Deutsche Börse |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
|
Malta Stock Exchange |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Athens Exchange |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Bucharest Stock Exchange |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Budapest Stock Exchange |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Cyprus Stock Exchange |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Prague Stock Exchange |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Spanish Exchanges (BME) |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Bratislava Stock Exchange |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Irish Stock Exchange |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Ljubljana Stock Exchange |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Wiener Börse |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
* excluding December 2008
Source: FESE, WSE
WSE Main List
The WSE Main List welcomed 33 new listings in 2008. The value of the IPOs was PLN 9.4 billion, including PLN 3.7 billion of newly issued shares. Three foreign stocks were listed: Atlas Estates Ltd. (Guernsey), Belvedere (France), and NWR (Czech Republic). The IPO of NWR was the largest WSE offer by value in all of 2008 (PLN 5.5 billion). The largest offer of newly issued shares was that of Enea (close to PLN 2 billion), the third largest new shares issue in the history of the WSE.
MW Trade was the first stock to move from the alternative market NewConnect to the WSE Main List (regulated market) in December 2008.
Previously listed companies raised more equity in secondary public offerings (SPO) in 2008. The value of SPOs was close to PLN 2 billion in January-November 2008.
NewConnect
The alternative market NewConnect was growing very dynamically. Launched in late August 2007 as one of the newest alternative markets in Europe, NewConnect resisted the downturn and attracted 61 new listings in 2008. The value of the IPOs was over PLN 180 million, almost entirely consisting of newly issued shares (mainly in private placement) totalling PLN 176.5 million.
Photon Energy (Czech Republic) raised PLN 2.16 million as the first foreign listing on NewConnect in 2008.
WSE: Attractive to Foreign Stocks
Four foreign stocks were listed on the WSE markets in 2008, including 3 on the regulated market and 1 on NewConnect.
Over the past year, the WSE has grown to become the largest stock exchange in the CEE/SEE region. The capitalisation of the WSE is bigger than that of the Wiener Börse or the Athens Exchange. The capitalisation gap between Vienna and Warsaw was shrinking steadily for years. The capitalisation of the Wiener Börse was over EUR 27 billion bigger than the capitalisation of the WSE at the end of 2005; the capitalisation of the WSE was EUR 9 billion bigger than that of the Wiener Börse in July 2008 and is currently EUR 15 billion bigger. The capitalisation of the WSE was almost EUR 2 billion bigger than the capitalisation of the Athens Exchange at the end of November 2008. (All figures include capitalisation of domestic companies only.)
In September 2008, Poland was promoted to Advanced Emerging status in the market classification by FTSE, one of the world’s largest institutions calculating and publishing 120 thousand different indices. The FTSE decision reflects the growing importance of the Polish capital market on the international scene. The FTSE decision said that Poland has a strong investment environment and has made significant changes to its regulations, procedures and systems, enhancing international investors access to its market.
